During the first months of a baby life, a baby stroller is one of the places the baby may spend most of his time. The baby-stroller can be used for a variety of common tasks, such as shopping, walking in the park, and as a basic tool to transfer the baby from one place to another in a safety and a pleasant manner.
In addition the baby-stroller is also used as a resting and a sleeping place for the baby. The need for putting the occupant of a stroller (i.e., a baby or a toddler) to sleep is well known. It is well known that babies have a better sleep through motion, as rocking the baby in a stroller has a calming effect on the baby. In another words, the baby-stroller is a kind of a second home for the baby. However, this simple action of rocking the stroller (i.e., moving the stroller forward and backward) neutralizes or limits the parent (or other person who take care of the baby) of doing other tasks.
Chinese Patent application No. 102198839 discloses a trolley capable of reciprocating to calm baby, which comprises a trolley frame and a reciprocating driving device. Wheels of the trolley are driven by a linking device, so the trolley can move in a reciprocated manner without being pushed by people in a short distance to calm the baby on the trolley. The reciprocating time, distance and/or frequencies of the trolley can be preset according to the reciprocating driving device; and the moving direction of the trolley can be changed and the set for calming the baby is executed by detecting the revolution number of a driving motor inside the trolley.
However, such reciprocating driving device is lack the ability to accurately “know” the distance the trolley passes through as the measurements are not taken directly from the trolley's wheel. Moreover, such reciprocating driving device is lack the ability to “know” whether the stroller actually moves and how it actually moves, as it depends only on the driving motor with no feedback from the stroller's wheel. For example, if a malfunction occurs such that the driving motor moves the stroller only in one direction (as in one direction there is a limited friction or no friction at all between the device and the stroller's wheel), the stroller will be advanced in one direction only (which might be very dangerous in some environments), but the device will be unaware of such malfunction situation.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device which is capable of accurately measuring the actual distance of the trolley in any direction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device that is capable of “knowing” whether the stroller actually moves and how much it actually moves in each direction.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device which is capable of replacing the manual action of moving the baby stroller forward and backward.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a device which is capable of allowing the baby's guardian to do other tasks while the baby is resting or taking a nap.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.